A series of aminoalkylaminoanthraquinones have been prepared as potential intercalating agents. The binding to DNA of these compounds and the known intercalating drugs chloroquine, lucanthone, daunorubicin and doxorubicin has been characterized by spectrophotometric titration. The association constant for the interaction with DNA has been determined for each compound from a Scatchard plot. The compounds synthesized had association constants between 0-5 and 4-2 times 10(6) compared with 0-93, 0-90, 3-10 and 2-49 times 10(6) for chloroquine, lucanthone, daunorubicin and doxorubicin respectively.

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